Pigs plan seen as jiggery-porkery

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A bizarre diplomatic skirmish has broken out between Belarus and
Lithuania after the latter decided to build a radioactive waste
dump close to their shared border.

This prompted Belarus to announce plans to put two giant pig
farms in sniffing distance of its neighbour.

The spat began when officials in Vilnius confirmed Lithuania
would build the storage plant about 700 metres from the Belarusian
border. Minsk complained that it had not been consulted and said
the dumpy would threaten a nearby national park.

Now it has retaliated with a project of its own: two farm
complexes for a total of 216,000 pigs close to Lithuania's southern
border, one beside a river that runs straight into the Baltic
country.

The plans were leaked to newspapers by the Belarussian
agriculture ministry.

Lithuania's Prime Minister, Algirdas Brazauskas, criticised the
plans last week, saying: "Construction of a pig complex in the
Neman River basin would be a barbarous act."

Waste could flow down the river to a popular spa resort at
Druskininkai, south-western Lithuania, officials in Vilnius say.
The Foreign Minister, Antanas Valionis, said the "significant
increase in pollution of Lithuanian rivers" could lead to sanctions
against Belarus.

Officially, Minsk denies the pig farms plan is linked to its
displeasure over the dump, to be used for material from Lithuania's
Ignalina nuclear power station, which is to be decommissioned by
2009.

Natalya Golovko, of the Ministry of Natural Resources and
Environmental Protection in Minsk, said the proposed 100,000 cubic
metre dump threatened to have an "ecological, social and
psychological" impact on Belarus, still traumatised by the 1986
Chernobyl disaster.

The accident at the nuclear plant took place in Ukraine, but the
brunt of the fallout was taken by Belarus.

Lithuania denies the plant will be dangerous. Mr Brazauskas
stressed the dump would be a "dry" one for discarded materials, not
nuclear fuel.

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1125302508527-smh.com.auhttp://www.smh.com.au/news/world/pigs-plan-seen-as-jiggeryporkery/2005/08/29/1125302508527.htmlsmh.com.auThe Guardian2005-08-30Pigs plan seen as jiggery-porkeryTom Parfitt in MoscowWorld